Deep South Oil & Vinegar: Early Results After Six Weeks
Six weeks into managing social media for Deep South Oil & Vinegar in Houma, Make Waves Marketing grew Facebook followers 4% with zero paid spend.
Make Waves Marketing started managing Facebook and Instagram for Deep South Oil & Vinegar on July 23, 2026. Six weeks is too short for a full case study, so this is a field note. It will be updated at the six month mark.
The shop
Deep South Oil & Vinegar is a specialty food store at 412 Corporate Drive in Houma, Louisiana. It sells infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars, including Black Garlic Dark Balsamic, Tuscan Herb, Italian Lemon, Blackberry Ginger, Watermelon, and white balsamics in coconut, pineapple, and white peach. The shop also carries bread dipping blends, bread and scone mixes, hot chocolate, Averie's Apiary local honey, Kajun Loaded Tea, kitchen gifts, and a Blind Date with a Book rack. Bottles can be brought back for refills. The shop has been open nearly 14 years, and owner Sandy, a Houma native, has owned it for more than nine.
Six weeks by the numbers
| Metric | Jul 23 to Sep 1, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Facebook followers | 4,332 to 4,504 (+172, +4.0%) |
| Instagram followers | 431 to 436 |
| Posts published (agency and owner combined) | 36 |
| Agency-written posts | 13 |
| Highest reach | 28,593 (Meet Sandy, Aug 19) |
| Paid promotion | None |
One post did most of the work
On August 19 the agency published a first-person introduction to Sandy: wife, mother, grandmother, Houma native, 14 years of the shop, nine as owner. It reached 28,593 people, six times the page's follower count, with 669 reactions, 77 shares, and 56 comments. The page gained more followers in the ten days after that post than in the previous four weeks.
The next-best agency post, a Hosting 101 bread-dipping appetizer how-to on August 21, reached 3,229 with 68 reactions and 9 shares. The unusual-flavors post covering coconut, pineapple, and white peach balsamics reached 2,569. The bottle refill reminder reached 1,497. The combo-of-the-month posts reached 822 and 926, and the September one drew 8 comments.
What the owner's own posts tell us
Sandy also posts to the page herself, and that is useful data. Her product restocks and sale posts, covering jar openers, bowl cozies, scone mixes, hot chocolate, honey straws, and loaded tea, reach 300 to 1,100 people. Her posts with no caption reach 80 to 335. A request for egg cartons reached 1,086 with 11 reactions, which says something about how much the audience likes hearing from her directly.
The plan is to keep both voices on the page: Sandy for restocks, sales, and community asks, and Make Waves Marketing for product education, recipes, hosting content, and the monthly pairing. Every post gets a caption and the shop address.
What comes next
Fall is gift season for a specialty food shop. September through December will test holiday gift sets, the Blind Date with a Book rack, and recipe content tied to Thanksgiving and Christmas. A second owner-voice post is planned for October. The six month update will cover follower growth, reach by post type, and whether online orders at deepsouthoilvinegar.com moved.
Short answers
How fast did the page grow? 172 Facebook followers in six weeks, a 4% gain, most of them in the ten days after the owner introduction post.
What was the top post? A first-person "Meet Sandy" post on August 19, 2026: 28,593 reach, 669 reactions, 77 shares, 56 comments.
Was it paid? No. All figures are organic, from Metricool.
Who runs the page? Both the owner and Make Waves Marketing, on a shared calendar.
About Make Waves Marketing
Make Waves Marketing is a digital marketing agency in Thibodaux, Louisiana and Jacksonville, Florida offering social media management, web design, video production, SEO, and AI advisory. It holds Wix Studio League recognition as one of the top 200 web designers in the United States and manages social media for retail and food clients including Wag-A-Pak and Deep South Oil & Vinegar.
Data pulled from Metricool on September 2, 2026. Update scheduled for late January 2027.
If you own a specialty shop or local retail business and want a read on your first six weeks, request a free audit.
Want results like this for your business?
Tell us about your project and we will walk through what this build would look like for your operation. A few sentences is plenty to start.